MOSES LAKE — The Washington Rage 16u softball team got their summer season started at the Fourth of July Shootout tournament in Spokane where the team finished third. The Rage looks to find further success as they battle in weekend tournaments through the end of July. 

“For our first tournament out this season I thought it was pretty good,” said Rage Head Coach Bob Richardson.  

The Rage started out the weekend against the Spokane Diamonds Herbert. The Diamonds got on the board first with run in the bottom of the third and the Rage responded in the top of the fourth as Kylie Christiansen hit a line drive to score Malorie Lane.

As the game went on the Rage was unable to stop their opponent and the game ended with a Diamonds 5-1 victory.   

Saturday’s first matchup for the Rage was against the NW Aces where the Aces were first to score in the top of the first inning to go up by two. The Rage responded in the fourth inning with two runs. Both teams scored one run in the final inning, and the game ended in a 3-3 tie. 

Following the tie, Washington played against MT Avalanche/Larson where the opposing team got off to a hot start to be up seven in the third inning. Washington worked to climb back, scoring two in the third, three in the fourth and one in the fifth, but with the Avalanche scoring five in the third and one in the fourth inning, the game ended 13-6. 

The final game Saturday came against the USA Explosion where the Rage was first to score at the top of the first inning. The Explosion took the lead in the bottom of the first to go up by one and maintained their lead through the remainder of the game to win 6-4. 

Going into Sunday’s competition, the Rage first faced Reapers Softball and showed high energy right from the start to go up six in the bottom of the first inning. Washington remained ahead of the competition throughout the game and won with their highest scoring game of the weekend 12-5. 

The Rage once again faced the NW Aces in their final game of the weekend, and both teams started strong to earn a run in the first inning. The game stayed 1-1 until the fourth inning where the Aces earned six runs to claim the lead and with neither team scoring the game ended 7-1. 

One of the major highlights for the Rage from the weekend of competition was on the defensive side of the ball, said Richardson. 

“I think our pitching did really well, that’s going to definitely be a strength of ours,” said the coach. “Our defense played well with the exception of two innings, that’s usually how that works out, but we have speed in a lot of different defensive positions.” 

The top pitching performance of the weekend for the Rage came from Malorie Lane who took to the mound against the Aces Saturday where she struck out 11 batters over seven innings. 

Something else that has stuck out from Washington so far this season is the flexibility of the players and their ability to play multiple positions. 

Richardson said there is still some work with gelling together that needs to be done with the Rage, as the team consists of multiple newcomers. The team also lost one of their starters, Josie Carlstrom, on the first day of summer break with a broken leg and needed to adjust to that, which he feels the team accomplished this weekend. 

“That was tough; she’s our starting second baseman and one of our big bats in the line up,” he said. “So not having her and still being able to do as well as we did was nice.” 

With the first tournament of the season over, the Rage has begun to set further goals for their season. Richardson said one of those goals is to strengthen their offense enough to be ready for nationals at the end of the month. 

“That hurt us this weekend; we just started late,” said the coach. “If you looked at all of our games from the third inning on, we beat everybody that we played. It’s those first three innings where we don’t score any runs, we give up a couple runs and then we’re kind of digging out of a hole for the rest of the game.” 

This first tournament allowed Richardson to see exactly what he wants the players to work on the little things the players did throughout the weekend. 

“Working with (Mavericks Head Coach) Mike Hofheins, I’ve really learned to take some notes more so than I did before,” said Richardson. 

As the Rage prepares to head deeper into the summer, the coach said he is confident in the team’s ability to build strength and cohesiveness. 

“I’m looking forward to this season,” said Richardson. “We have a great group of girls and they all get along.” 

The Rage prepares for the next weekend of competition in East Wenatchee at Eastmont Metropolitan Park. The first game is set for Saturday at 12:30 p.m. against the Liberty Lake Lightning. 

BOX SCORES:  

FRIDAY 

WSHN: 0-0-0-1-0-0-x: 1 

SPKN: 0-0-1-2-1-1-x: 5 

SATURDAY 

WSHN: 0-0-0-2-0-0-1: 3 

NWCS: 2-0-0-0-0-1-0: 3 

WSHN: 0-0-2-3-1-x-x: 6 

MTVL: 4-3-5-1-x-x-x: 13 

WSHN: 1-0-2-0-1-x-x: 4 

USXP: 2-3-0-1-x-x-x: 6 

SUNDAY

RPRS: 0-2-1-0-2-x-x: 5 

WSHN: 6-2-0-3-1-x-x: 12 

WSHN: 1-0-0-0-0-0-x: 1 

NWCS: 1-0-0-6-0-0-x: 7 

    Rage players high five their opponents after a game during the tournament in Spokane this weekend.
  

    Rage Head Coach Bob Richardson (left) receives a plaque for the team taking third place in the Fourth of July Shootout tourney.
  

    WA Rage players and coaches gather for a team huddle after a game over the weekend.